Discovering the World of Warcraft and beyond

From Sunday evening, festively colored bunnies have been hopping across the major faction villages of Azeroth in search of hidden brightly colored eggs. Noblegarden celebrates the arrival of Spring with cute bunnies, chocolate eggs, eggs hunts, spring flowers and elegant costumes. The key to this festival is the brightly colored eggs as not only are they required for three of the achievements (I Found One; Chocolate Lover & Chocoholic) but can both drop items required for the other achievements or serve as currency to buy them. Thus competition for eggs is fierce especially in peaks time.

Spring Collectors or Spring Gatherers – lead in quests from the capital to speak to the Spring Collectors at Goldshire, Kharanos, Dolanaar, and Azure Watch (Alliance) or the Spring Gatherers at Razor Hill, Brill, Bloodhoof Village, and Falconwing Square (Horde).

A Tisket, a Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket – collect 10 Noblegarden chocolates and return with the borrowed Noblegarden basket to the Noblegarden vendor or merchant. Reward includes a permanent Noblegarden basket. Some players advise not completing this quest until you have completed the achievements as it costs 10 chocolates.

The Great Egg Hunt (daily) – collect and return 20 brightly colored egg fragments to the Spiring Collector (Alliance) or Gatherer (Horde). The fragments are collected with the eggs when you have this quest.

Finding EggsEggs can be found scattered around Goldshire, Kharanos, Dolanaar, Azure Watch, Razor Hill, Brill, Bloodhoof Village, and Falconwing Square. They can be hidden in bushes, beside trees, behind or and sometimes in objects such as mail boxes, crates, pots, walls, corners and general debris, on windowsills and posts, etc. Respawn rate may vary and tends to be a couple of minutes. Every so often collecting an egg will give you a 60 minute Noblegarden Bunny buff that turn you into a bunny (unless you are already shape shifted e.g. druid travel form). Some players have found using macros (eg /use Brightly Colored Egg) useful.

There are two basic strategies in egg hunting:

The static method – with this strategy you find a spot in which typically 3-4 eggs spawn and then camp the spot. This requires some patience and knowledge of where eggs spawn. It is probable more viable when the area is overrun with egg hunters. It can also be used intermittently – for instance while you loot your eggs and/or consume your chocolate.

The circuit method – in this method you circle the area, covering the areas where you know eggs spawn. Using your egg basket (which increases speed by 60% for 10 secs with a 10 sec cool down) or druid travel form etc can help you cover the area faster or get to an egg before another player. I suggest varying your path and angle as that way you will see eggs you hadn’t noticed before or eggs that are hidden behind objects or walls.

Some starter areas are more popular (i.e. crowded, e.g. Goldshire for Alliance). In some areas the eggs may be easier to spot (e.g. Kharanos versus Dolanaar) though if you are familiar with the possible spawn points that can work for you rather than against you. Picking less populated areas, less popular times, or later in the week may speed up your egg collection.

Overall – if you are extremely unlucky – you will need 315 eggs to complete the achievements, and extra 10 for the quest and, for mages, another 100 if you want to Tome of Polymorph Rabbit or another 50 if you want Spring Circlet. However, as all the items needed for the achievements can drop from the brightly colored eggs with the exception of Noblegarden Egg (5 chocolates) you will probably only need a little over 105 (or 205 for mages). The white tuxedo shirt and black tuxedo pants can be posted or traded to your alts or other players. You need to loot them for Sunday Finest though this achievement is not needed for the meta-achievement What a Long Strange Trip it has been. The wisest course is to hold off buying anything from the vendor with the except for the Noblegarden Egg until after you have consumed your 100 eggs needed for Chocoholic. Then work out how many more eggs you need to purchase the items haven’t dropped for you. Of course, they can still drop as you collect these extra eggs.

Noble Garden – hide a brightly covered egg in either Stormwind (alliance) or Silvermoon City (horde). You can do this with a Noblegarden Egg obtained from the Noblegarden vendor (5 chocolates). Once you have placed the egg (and got the achievement) you can then loot the egg for a Brightly Colored egg and/or other possible drops.

Spring Fling requires you looting or buying (100 chocolates) a Spring Rabbit (Spring Rabbit’s foot) and bringing your spring rabbit into close proximity of another players spring rabbit in the four faction villages – you can leave the rest up to nature.

Hard Boiled Lay an egg in the Golakka Hot Springs(Un’goro crater) while transformed into a Noblegarden bunny. There are two ways of achieving this – while having the Noblegarden bunny buff hop (you will not be able to ride but you can hearth) to Un’goro (preferably by porting to Caverns of Time from Dalaran) or hopping +/- taking a boat from point of transformation to Golakka Hot Springs. You will be unable to fight or cast spells in this form. The other method requires another player transforming you with blossoming branch (looted from eggs or daily quest reward) once you have reached the springs. Then sit in the water (not swimming) and wait until you lay the egg.

Desert Rose – wearing your Spring Robes (looted from Brightly Colored Egg or bought from vendor) go to Silithus, Desolace, Thousand Needles (all in Kalimdor) and the Badlands(Eastern Kingdoms). Use your robes to plant a flower and you have the achievement. As three of these locations are quite close to Un’goro it makes sense to do these after having completed Hard Boiled.

Shake Your Bunny-Maker – Just use your Spring Flowers (drop of Brightly colored egg or purchased from vendor for 50 chocolates) to put bunny ears on a female (level 18 +) of each race. Some races are harder to find – look in the banks & AH of your faction’s cities or the banks and surrounding areas in Dalaran. You can also search battlegrounds (say Alteraic Valley or Wintergrasp); neutral cities like Gagetzhan, or Booty Bay or the higher level starting areas of the opposing faction. The Spring Flowers have a 5 minute cool down and need to be equipped to work.

The Blushing Bride – /kiss another player wearing at Noblegarden Elegant Dress while you are wearing the Elegant White Tuxedo Shirt & the Elegant Black Tuxedo Pants. You can loot, buy from the vendor (25 chocolates each; total of 50) or acquire from another player the Tuxedo set. The Dress is soul bound and can only be looted or purchased (50 chocolates).

B oth Dressed for the Occasion and Sundays Finest require looting the Elegant Dress and each piece of the Tuxedo set from a Brightly Colored Egg respectively – however neither of these achievements are required for the meta-achievement Noblegardener

Noble gardener – complete all the above achievement with the exception of the last two. Noble gardener counts towards What a Long Strange Trip it has been & therefore towards getting the Reins of the Violet Proto-dragon.

There have been no surprizes or significant changes in 2010 with this seasonal event. And this must be one of the easiest, if not the easiest of the seasonal meta-achievements to complete as there are no high-level dungeons or battlegrounds involved and the highest level areas necessary for the achievements Hard Boiled and Desert Rose are in Un’goro (48-55) and Silithus (55-60).

Just as the Lunar Festival is based on the celebration of Chinese New Year and linked to the lunar calendar, so Noblegarden is clearly based on the central Christian festival of Easter (also linked to the lunar calendar). However, unlike the Lunar Festival, Noblegarden has been stripped of most of its distinctive content and story with only the more secular, more commercialised and less obviously Christian elements included. The world-wide and diverse celebration of Easter has a long history with some very tenuous links to pre-Christian practices and a much stronger link with the Jewish Passover .

Yet whether it celebrates the hope of new life with the coming of Spring, a way of bringing “communities together to share the joy of life and friendship” (official WOW site) or the promise of new life both now and beyond the grave made explicit in the Jesus story – it is a time of hope, new life and promise. I wish you all joy, friendship and new life as you celebrate this season with your friends and family.